TNAG-1028-FCO40-1278-Visits-by-Members-of-Parliament-to-Hong-Kong-1981 — Page 43

P.A.

File No.

Page

Call by Mr Robert Battersby

Member of the European Parliament

When Mr Battersby called today he produced a whole

stream of ideas about China and Hong Kong and the DEC.

༡.

While I think the promotion of links between Hong

Kong and the EEC is a very good thing, I was not at all

sure whether Mr Battersby would prove the best channel,

in spite of his enthusiasm. I therefore remained rather

non-committal throughout the interview. His main points

were:

(a) He was considering setting up a Hong Kong/

European Parliament Committee similar to the

All Party Group in Westminster. He would take

no action until he had discussed with Sir

Paul Bryan;

(b) In any case meanwhile he would himself bring th

interests of Hong Kong and LDCS to the

attention of the European Parliament in

connection with the MPA;

(c) He thought the EEC might assist China in sending

students to Europe by setting up an information

centre which would inform the Chinese of all

scholarship facilities available in all ESC

countries. I pointed out that a lot was being

11, and I thought he should coment

7

→

Mr Troughton, the Chairman of the British

Council, to see whether these proposals would